Akhenaten and Nefertiti

Eden in Egypt – Part 2


(Read part 1 ) So if the Garden of Eden was located at Amarna, then what of Adam and Eve? The first thing to note is that Adam and Eve were the first man and first woman. But then so too were Pharaoh Akhenaton and Queen Nefertiti. Just as the American president and his wife are known as the First Man and the First Lady, so too were Akhenaton and Nefertiti. So the Genesis description of them was not wrong - just confusing (and deliberately so).

Note also that Adam and Eve were famed for being innocently naked in their idyllic Garden; but when they were eventually banished from this Garden they became embarrassed by their nakedness and were forced to cover up. This, I believe, is another direct allusion to the famous royal couple from Amarna. Yes, Akhenaton and Nefertiti did indeed float through their beautiful palaces at Amarna in a state of near nakedness, and scene after scene portrays the royal couple in either see-though diaphanous robes or being completely naked. And this probably did cause a bit of a stir in the Egyptian 'media' - the gossiping in the market squares. Think what a media storm would erupt today, if Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were photographed strolling naked through the gardens at Buckingham Palace!

The Fall and Expulsion of Adam - Michaelangelo

Fig 2.5   A 'lumpy naked body' depiction of the Fall and Expulsion of Adam, by Michaelangelo.

Akhenaton and Nefertiti naked at Amarna

Fig 2.6   Akhenaton and Nefertiti naked at Amarna, just as Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden. The third torso is of an unknown Amarna queen/princess in a diaphanous robe that is so revealing she might as well be naked.

However, when Amarna was destroyed and the royal couple were forced to flee from their palace (there is no evidence for their deaths there), they would have been forced out into the big wide world of sailors, artisans and farmers. Their usual nakedness, which seemed so respectable and befitting within the confines of the royal court at Amarna, would have looked positively indecent in a rural village or town. There was nothing else to do, except cover up!

Tower of Babel

The topic that inspired this article was actually the Tower of Babel, not the Genesis story, so how does this novel information about Eden effect the famous tower of many languages? Well, the story thus far is one with a distinctly Egyptian flavour, and so if we travel with the descendants of Adam and Eve (Akhenaton and Nefertiti) northwards from Amarna, we arrive at the land of Shiniar, the 'land of two rivers' where the Tower of Babel was built. Well, perhaps, but I rather think that the location they arrived at was actually Shiniyr, the land of the 'mountain of snow'.  And where is the Mountain of Snow, where a massive 'tower' was to be built? Giza, of course.

The Tower of Babel at Giza

Fig 2.7    The Tower of Babel at Giza. Originally, the two main pyramids at Giza would have been covered in pure white limestone, and known as the Snow Mountains, or Shiniyr.

Remember that the Great and Second pyramids were originally covered in pure white limestone, and so they would indeed have looked like two snow-covered peaks standing on the Giza plateau. And so it is likely that the Tower of Babel (the Migdal Babel) was one of the pyramids on the Giza plateau. But if that is so, then what does Migdal Babel mean?

The first thing to note is that migdal is an Egyptian word that is pronounced as maktal meaning 'tower'. Then we come to the Aramaic babel, which is said to mean 'confusion' or 'scatter', much as the biblical story relates. But anyone who has studied Egyptology would instantly know that the Egyptian word berber refers to a pyramid rather than a tower, just as its determinative hieroglyph demonstrates. Furthermore the 'r' to 'l' transliteration, that is so common when transposing from Egyptian to Aramaic, would render this word as belbel in the Torah, just as the Egyptian maktar was eventually rendered as maktal. And this Egyptian-to-Aramaic translation is further confirmed by the similar Egyptian and Coptic word berber ( belbel) meaning 'expel', which is exactly what happened to the people of Shiniyr.

Fig 2.8    The Egyptian berber (belbel) meaning 'expel' or perhaps 'scatter'.  The similar Coptic word berber confirms this translation from the Egyptian.


Fig 2.9    The Egyptian maktar berber (maktal belbel) meaning 'tower pyramid'. The Tower of Babel was therefore a pyramid - the Great Pyramid of Giza.

What we have here is a complete and comprehensive explanation for the meaning and location of the Tower of Babel. In reality the Genesis epic was an Egyptian story and history, and not something derived from Babylon - a region that the Israelites did not go to until the 6th century BC. In reality, the famous Tower of Babel was located in Shiniyr, the land of the snow-white pyramids which is known today as the Giza plateau, and the Migdal Babel is now called the Great Pyramid. And this is not the end of this fascinating story, of course, because the history of the Migdal tower continues right up into the 1st century, and the equally momentous epic of the New Testament. And there, in Judaea, a much later vestal virgin priestess of the pyramids became almost as famous as the tower she was named after - Mary Migdalene, the blonde Princess of the Tower....

Fig 2.10    Mary Migdalene, the Princess of the Tower, lowering her ginger-golden hair down for her lost prince. (Illustration from the fairytale Rapunzel.)


Once more we have seen good evidence that there are elements of real history within the Torah, and that this biblical history often relates stories, events and locations that are closely linked with Egypt. It is likely, therefore, that the entire Genesis story has come from the peculiar events of the Amarna era, when Egypt's first monotheist pharaoh was banished to a barren plain on the eastbank of the Nile. It was in Amarna that Pharaoh Akhenaton penned the Hymn to the Aten, and an analysis of this hymn has demonstrated direct parallels with the account of Genesis. But if all of this is true, then the inescapable and potentially explosive conclusion to be drawn, is that Adam and Eve were Akhenaton and Nefertiti. And so the entire cult of Judaeo-Christianity was based upon the life of Egypt's heretic pharaoh, who was exiled and created a new city and a new kingdom in Middle Egypt - a founder and leader who has been all but expunged from the religion he created.

Featured image: Akhenaten and Nefertiti holding their daughters. Source: Wikipedia

Part 1

By Ralph Ellis


*1  The god Aton or Aten is spelt as Aden in  'The Book of Precepts of Amenemapt, the son of Kanekht'.

*2  Paradise:  meaning 'a walled garden'.

*3   The Great Hymn to the Aten, N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna.

The article ‘Eden in Egypt’ has been extracted with permission from the books ‘Eden in Egypt’ and ‘Mary Magdalene, Princess of Orange’ by Ralph Ellis, available from


Ha, yes, what a nonsense that film was. Five minutes was my maximum. Why do people read these texts quite so literally and stupidly??

My version would be quite different.

My Noah is from the Egyptian creation myth. Noah was the Egyptian Nu, the chaotic waters of the cosmos. Apon these waters sailed the mighty solar-boat of Ra, containing many pairs of animals (the gods).

The Primaeval Mound broke open revealing the Sun, in the form of a bird. in fact, there was a bright bird and a dark bird - the Sun and the Moon.

In which case, we still have the original Ark of Noah. it is sitting on the Giza Plateau.


Ralph, have you seen the new Noah movie? If the director approached you to make this movie, what kind of plot would you write for him?

Why do you think so ?

The garden of eden is in Turkey

If Akhenaton went on an Exodus, as is likely, it is difficult to find the burial. There may not have been a grand tomb. Also, if they went north, the climate is not good at preserving remains.

In addition, they may have gone a long way. There is a possibility that Akhenaton went to Greece. The evidence from Scottish records (Scotichronicon) is that Pharaoh Aye and Ankhesenamun went to Spain.



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